Layers of Truth in Mary Karr’s Lit

During our online workshops and discussions, the subject of how much truth to reveal comes up frequently, and we consider various published memoirs as examples. What confounds many memoir writers is not only how much truth is revealed, but how to find the language to tell the tale. On of my favorite examples is Mary Karr’s Lit–the third in her memoir series that began with The Liar’s Club. I recommend all three books, not because we should imitate them or try to write like Mary, but to see how she pieced together her memories and her stories.

Shiela Bender, in our August roundtable discussion, said that “a memoir is a made thing, We are meaning-makers.” A memoir is a journey into ourselves, and the story will reveal who we are, and were, to us as we write it. My review of Mary Karr’s Lit follows, and as you can see I loved the book! As you read all books–memoir, fiction, nonfiction, read as a writer–notice how you are drawn in, how you feel when you read, how the writer weaves the magic of a story.

Lit, the memoir by Mary Karr, is a book to be inhaled and imbibed, a fitting fate for a story about falling down a bottle and the slippery climb back up to some version of sanity and grace. Read the book all at once to feel its full impact, as you encounter the older, yet not wiser, Mary, moving on from the frightened, brassy, and lost girl in Liar’s Club and Cherry.

In Lit, we pick up where Cherry left off, in her late adolescence, a crusty, naïve, and wandering girl in search of respectability when she’s not numb from alcohol or some other drug. As she journeys almost by accident into her early literary and poet life, she marries a handsome patrician East Coast man whose family is old money where she steps into the world of upper class well-to-do, swigging hope to abandon her gritty Texas shame. Her father, whom she loved and adored, disappeared into the bottle, and her mother had tried to kill her children with a butcher knife in a psychotic fit.

Mary writes her adult self with the laconic wit she’s known for, putting in parentheses the moments where even she can’t bear to write flat-footed about her own ignorance, willful meanness, and ignorant wounds she inflicts on her husband and then her son, Dev, who’s an appealing and significant force in the book. In fact, her prologue is written in the form of a letter to him.

Mary chronicles, lurches rather, into the deeper rings of hell of her alcoholism, seething with self-hatred. Even her stumbling into AA and furtive prayers are not enough to stop her determined self-destruction, leading her inevitably to the thought of suicide which scares her enough to get admitted to the “Mental Marriot,” a place where many famous poets have been locked up—Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell, among others.

Mary’s mother, finally sober after a lifetime of rollicking, psychotic drinking, is a curious yet lively character in the book. The book moves through territory that is new to us—how Mary became a published poet, her friendship with Tobias Wolff, and her eventual conversion to Catholicism. Particularly entertaining are her desperate attends to learn to pray at first through clenched teeth while kneeling in front of a toilet, alternating prayers with curses, reluctant to accept the possibility of redemption. No matter what belief system one has, Mary makes it clear that her grudging nod to Christianity is no panacea nor is it a welcome or easy path. One day at a time, it’s a path to some kind of inner peace.

One of the most moving passages is toward the end, a simple, direct conversation between Mary and her mother, where in a few sentences they meet eye to eye, apology to apology about their own humanness and their love. It is a heart-opening passage of mother and daughter facing each other in humility and truth.

Mary’s book is a guide for memoir writers in making rib-aching confessions, how to write with poetry without gliding over the pebbles of reality that sting. It’s also a bible of how to scrape out tendrils of truth out of a lifetime of lies, and find yourself somewhat whole in the end, imperfect but still standing. This book lingers with you as you contemplate your own existence, and the road from darkness into light.

Myers makes a compelling case for the power of words as a form of healing and growth.

James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D.professor of psychology, The University of Texas at Austin and author, Opening Up and Writing To HealSeptember 9, 2014

...the NAMW memoir classes with Linda Joy Myers are wonderful

Kathy PoolerSeptember 9, 2014

I loved Linda Joy's two-hour workshop on memoir writing! She gave us such terrific information--all of which was helpful no matter what stage of memoir writing we were in. She has such an embracing style--this was not like most teleseminars I have taken, in that Linda Joy encouraged participation of the audience (she did not mute us), and no matter what participants said or asked, she always made everyone feel like their contribution or question was valued.

Debra SandersSeptember 9, 2014

This tele-seminar is such an inspiration and so valuable to me expanding ways of thinking and creating…. makes me SPARKLE like Veuve Clicquot! Sharon, Thank you so much.

Rosalyn KaplusSeptember 9, 2014

A powerful and unique writing guide—one that will lead any writer straight to the heart of their richest material, help them heal, and then teach them how to shape it into literature. Destined to become a classic!

Jordan E. Rosenfeldcontributing editor, Writer’s Digest magazine and author, Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a TimeSeptember 9, 2014

With a gentle spirit and a clear voice, Linda Joy Myers creates a safe place for writers. With her 8 Step Program, Myers guides writers through the dark places of the heart, to ultimately arrive at a place of power and grace.

Sue William Silvermanauthor, Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir and Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember YouSeptember 9, 2014

One of the best things that has happened to me in my short two year adventure as a writer and author, is the NAMW and you. I can't thank you enough for your inspirational efforts to make sure that all your members get much more than 100 per cent value from belonging to the group.

Gene PepperSeptember 9, 2014

About Linda’s online writing workshop: I like the concept of ‘turning points’ instead of stories. It gives a more dynamic sense of flow to the stories and helps me to know which ones to select

RuthSeptember 9, 2014

When I first found NAMW (through Kathleen Adams and the Center for Journal Therapy) I was ecstatic. I knew that I was not alone in the drive to write down what happened to me and those around me, as well as the very real effects of lives lived – effects that reach from the distant past well as far, far into the future. Connecting with others who are putting themselves through the annealing fire of The Journey provides comfort like no other. The value is further enhanced by Linda Joy Myers. Her insightful “hand” leads, directs, and sets the tone for the society.